Petoskey falls to Gaylord in wrestling district

February 19, 2004|By andy sneddon News-review sports writer

GAYLORD - Once again, the difference was pins: Who got 'em, and who avoided them.

Gaylord and Petoskey split their seven wrestling matches Wednesday at Gaylord High School, but the Blue Devils picked up three pins to Petoskey's one as the Blue Devils claimed a 32-25 victory in a Division II Team District showdown between two of the top teams in the state.

The Blue Devils, 37-1 and ranked No. 6, advance to the Team Regionals next week in Mount Pleasant. Petoskey, which was ranked in the top 10 throughout the season, closes its dual-meet season 36-5.

"I think it's extremely disappointing for everybody involved," Petoskey coach Ray Arthur said. "There were seven seniors (in the lineup) who had their goals set on getting their team back in the state championships."

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A week ago, the Blue Devils outpinned Petoskey in a 31-29 victory at Petoskey to finish 7-0 in Big North Conference duals, while the Northmen finished 6-1. On Saturday, Petoskey evened things up league-wise by winning the conference tournament.

Yet the stakes were the ultimate in Wednesday's meet, which spelled the end of a sensational dual-meet season for Petoskey. The 36 wins is a school record.

Everything went as Arthur and his team had hoped early on, including winning the pre-match coin toss, which allowed Arthur to place the wrestler he wanted in the opening weight class, 119 pounds. That set in motion the chess game - fully anticipated whenever two closely matched and powerful teams meet - between Arthur and his Gaylord counterpart, Jerry LaJoie. They jockeyed wrestlers from weight class to weight class, where they figured to get their wins.

The key match came at 135 pounds, where Petoskey senior James Archambault squared off with Kevin Shankleton. Archambault, who was 37-0 on the season entering the match, had beaten Shankleton, 11-4, at the conference meet on Saturday and, understandably, Arthur was counting on a victory on Wednesday.

But Shankleton broke a 4-4 tie with a dramatic takedown with 3 seconds remaining to win, 6-4.

"That took the wind out of our sails there," Arthur said. "That just put us in a big hole."

Another critical turn came at 275, where Petoskey's Keith Sterly, the defending state runner-up, defeated Tim Irland, 7-0, in match that Sterly was clearly in control of, including a three-point near fall late in the second period. Yet because Irland managed to stay off his back, Petoskey got only three team points instead of the six it desperately needed.

Gaylord's Brett Belvin avoided a pin a 171 against Joe Haggerty. Haggerty took a 9-2 win, but, again, the key for the Blue Devils was not getting pinned and giving away just three team points instead of six. Haggerty had Belvin in pinning position for more than a minute, but Belvin somehow managed to keep his shoulders off the mat.

Sterly had pinned Irland in their last two meetings, while Haggerty had pinned Belvin a week ago in the dual meet and had beaten him 9-0 in the conference tournament on Saturday.

"That's what it comes down to, pins and not getting pinned," said LaJoie, whose team has won three straight team district titles and was a state semifinalist last year. "Ray Arthur's a great coach. He's got over 500 wins. His kids were ready, each (of his) kids knew what his job was, and so did ours."

"There were a lot of games going on today," he said, adding that when he lost the coin toss, he was forced to move three light wrestlers - 112, 119 and 125 - up one weight class each. "That gave us the best matchups on paper. We were very fortunate. I'm impressed with our lighter weights."

The match started at 119, where Nate Paul took a 19-8 major decision and O'Neill won by pin, giving Gaylord a 10-0 lead. Stradling followed with his pin to cut the Northmen deficit to 10-6.

Then came Shankleton's upset of Archambault, and it was an uphill battle for the Northmen the rest of the night.

Petoskey got an 8-0 win from Nate Whipple at 140 and a 1-0 win from Adam Ward at 145 to tie the match, 13-13. Gaylord's Brock Kemp then downed Rob Archambault, 3-2, at 152, and Petoskey's Matt Weston scored a 6-1 win over Pat Techel at 160, re-tying the match at 16-16.

"We shifted the lineup and put Rob Archambault (in) and he did a great job by losing by just a few points to a conference champion, he did exactly what we wanted him to do and so did Weston moving up to (160) and getting the win there," he said.

Haggerty gave the Northmen a 19-16 lead with his win, before Reinhardt put the Blue Devils back in front, 22-19, at 189.

Petoskey's Bill White took a 4-2 win at 215 and Sterly won his match to again give Petoskey the lead, 25-22. But at 103, Gaylord's Brian Council scored a 17-7 major decision to put Gaylord back in front for good, 26-25, and Travis finished it off with a pin in the final match.

The Northmen reached the final by breezing past West Branch Ogemaw Heights, 50-29, during which Arthur wrestled several B team members. Gaylord disposed of Cadillac, 57-21, in its semifinal match.